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An intermolecular mechanism of T cell help for the production of antibodies to the bacterial pathogen, Chlamydia trachomatis
Author(s) -
Allen Judith E.,
Stephens Richard S.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
european journal of immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.272
H-Index - 201
eISSN - 1521-4141
pISSN - 0014-2980
DOI - 10.1002/eji.1830230529
Subject(s) - chlamydia trachomatis , biology , pathogen , chlamydia , mechanism (biology) , microbiology and biotechnology , antibody , chlamydiaceae , virology , immunology , philosophy , epistemology
Abstract Antibodies that neutralize infectivity are directed at the antigenically variant major outer membrane protein (MOMP) of Chlamydia trachomatis. A vaccine for chlamydia will need to include T cell determinants that elicit T helper (Th) cells which provide help to MOMP‐specific B cells. A limited number of determinants on MOMP are able to elicit Th cells and sequence diversity in the MOMP molecule may alter T cell recognition of these determinants. We investigated whether two sequence invariant proteins of C. trachomatis that are both abundant and immunogenic could elicit T cell help for the production of antibody to MOMP. We found that outer membrane protein 2 (OMP2) but not outer membrane protein 3 (OMP3) was able to prime BALB/c mice for an anamnestic anti‐MOMP response following boost with the intact organism. This demonstration of an intermolecular mechanism of T cell help in a bacterial system has important implications for the development of a chlamydial vaccine as well as the design of vaccines for other antigenically variant non‐viral pathogens.